Planning planting: what to grow after peas
Among garden crops, peas are one of the most useful, not only for the summer resident, but also for his site. He, however, like other legumes, rarely gets sick and practically does not suffer from pests.
In the garden, peas are the most environmentally friendly, because chemistry (various fungicides or insecticides) is also almost never applied to it, and why should it be done if it grows well without them.
It is worth noting that peas are still often grown as a green manure and the reasons for this are quite compelling, since both the aerial part of the plant and the roots enrich the earth with nutrients, namely:
- leaves and shoots do not accumulate harmful substances during the growing season and serve as an excellent source of easily digestible microelements, organics, potassium and phosphorus when embedded in the soil, thereby enriching and restoring it after growing other crops;
- no less useful is the root system of legumes - it contains microorganisms that saturate the earth with nitrogen.
What can grow in former pea beds?
With such interesting and useful properties, peas are simply a universal precursor. What can be planted after peas?
And almost all garden plants can be planted, but they grow best in pea beds:
- all types of cabbage;
- root crops (radish, turnip, carrot, beet);
- nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants);
- pumpkin (zucchini, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins themselves).
What crops cannot be planted?
Despite the versatility of peas, the rule of crop rotation also works with it, which says that it is not desirable to grow one crop in the same place. Based on this, after the peas for the next year, it is not recommended to plant all legumes, namely:
- beans;
- the peas themselves;
- beans;
- green manure plants of this family (alfalfa, lupine, sainfoin).
In addition, do not sow the area with perennial grasses.
Of course, if there is no room in the garden, then there is no need to choose, and often peas are planted in the same garden bed again. This, in principle, is permissible, but not often and except for one option. It depends on the summer weather. Even the most resistant crops in rainy summers cannot resist fungal infections and rot. So, if this happened and the peas got sick, it is absolutely impossible to plant them on the same site (like other plants of the legume family).
You can return the peas to the previous bed no earlier than in 5 years, when all pathogenic bacteria in the soil will die and it will become safe again.